Anthony's Vancouver schedule

Cell: 1-416-723-6466. ring 2x, me call u

Wed Aug 30:
Thu Aug 31: St. Pauls Hospital 5pm-2am
Fri Sep 1:
Sat Sep 2: St. Pauls Hospital 8am-4pm
Sun Sep 3: St. Pauls Hospital 7am-3pm
Mon Sep 4: St. Pauls Hospital 8am-4pm
Tue Sep 5:
Wed Sep 6: St. Pauls Hospital 5pm-2am
Thu Sep 7:
Fri Sep 8:
Sat Sep 9:
Sun Sep 10:
Mon Sep 11: St. Pauls Hospital 3-11pm
Tue Sep 12: St. Pauls Hospital 3-11pm
Wed Sep 13: St. Pauls Hospital 7:30-10am, 11pm-7am
Thu Sep 14: St. Pauls Hospital 11pm-7am
Fri Sep 15:
Sat Sep 16: St. Pauls Hospital 8am-4pm
Sun Sep 17: St. Pauls Hospital 5pm-2am
Mon Sep 18: St. Pauls Hospital 11pm-7am
Tue Sep 19: St. Pauls Hospital 11pm-7am
Wed Sep 20: St. Pauls Hospital 8:30-10am
Thu Sep 21:
Fri Sep 22: St. Pauls Hospital 7am-3pm
Sat Sep 23:
Sun Sep 24:
Mon Sep 25: St. Pauls Hospital 3-11pm
Tue Sep 26: St. Pauls Hospital 3-11pm
Wed Sep 27: St. Pauls Hospital 7:30-10am
Thu Sep 28: St. Pauls Hospital 7am-3pm
Fri Sep 29: 9am depart, 4:30pm arrive Toronto

Back to the ER.  I'm back for another crazy month of emergency medicine in Credit Valley Hospital, Mississauga.  For those of you unfamiliar with Toronto, that's a 40min drive from Downtown where me lives.  This is such a hardcore educational experience that the first thing that came out of my staff's mouth during yesterday's orientation was, I quote, "Hi Anthony, nice to meet you - what is the differential diagnosis of left lower quadrant abdominal pain in a six year old?"  **

Happy Canada Day!  Had a great Canada Day weekend - went to the beach twice, once in the morning, once at night, met a ton of new friends, and grilled sausage until the wee hours of the morning.

Bartending classes.  I've been taking bartending classes at the Bartending School of Ontario, with hopes of getting a part-time job in one of the many bars in downtown.  The class seems pretty cool so far, the best thing is that you study with people who are equally motivated to learn the stuff... I wouldn't have the motivation otherwise probably.

La Oreja de Van Gogh.  I can't stop listening to them!  This is "Puedes contar conmigo" (You Can Count on Me).

Aagh.  I am addicted to this girl.  Somebody shoot me.  And give me anticootie serum while you're at it too.

http://www.dumpalink.com/media/1151397948/Wonder_Showzen_Cooties

***Edit***

For those of you who really wanted it, the differential diagnosis is:

testicular torsion, ovarian torsion, gastroenteritis, diverticulitis, orchitis, intussusception, cancer, diabetic ketoacidosis, celiac disease, Henoch-Schonlein purpura, trauma, abuse, foreign body, strangulated hernia

Just came back from a six-day trip to Boston and NYC.  THANKS to Janey, Esther, and Glad for all the good times.  And the neat pics that follow this post.

Recent ideas - I want to do a stint as a traveling bartender backpacking through Europe.  This is another reason to learn French, Portuguese, and maybe Italian.  Hrm.

Somebody recently called me "undatable."  The irony is that I am dating her.  The lesson?  Never, ever listen to women .  They either make no sense at all, or make sense on an intellectual level entirely beyond yours.

Summer's here.  Damnit, time to get some muscles.

New music.  A group from Spain, La Oreja de Van Gogh (The Ear of Van Gogh) - "La paz de tus ojos" ("The Peace of Your Eyes").  At first this single sounds as trivial as a hackneyed Britney Spears tune, but then picks up and it really grew on me after I listened to it about ten times.  The female vocalist is very strong.

Janey found duck eggs on the Charles River.

John Harvard wishes he were in my shoes!

Exclusive access to the Harvard Law library!

Gladwin looking academic in Harvard Law library.

Boston cream pie at Legal Sea Foods

I caught Cheese String Man in NYC!

Yes, Esther, the waiters screwed up all three pictures of us.

Did I just save a life?  A 70 year old woman whom I've never seen before walks into my family practice office saying she's had an on-and-off "burning" pain lasting five to ten minutes each episode in her upper abdomen radiating to her right flank for the last two weeks.  "This is definitely not my angina doctor, and I should know, I've had angina since the 1980's.  Maybe it might have something to do with my stomach?"  Immediately, random thoughts start coming into my head.  Is she having unstable angina?  A new heart attack?  Bile duct blockage?  Pancreatitis?  Chicken pox reactivation in the skin?  Or just a simple gastritis or peptic ulcer?  There are a million things it could be...

The physical exam was completely normal, except for a 5-6 centimetre pulsatile mass in the left side of her belly, which didn't really explain why the pain was radiating to the right flank.  My supervisor suggested to send her home.  Instead, I sent her to the emergency room with a brief note...

"R/o ACS, r/o AAA." *

The next day I check her status on the computer.  It showed she was in vascular surgery after being diagnosed with an ulcerated Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm on CT.  This means that her aorta was ready to explode any second, causing a fatal bleed potentially within minutes.  Crap, I hope everything turns out well..

* R/o = rule out, ACS = acute coronary syndrome, AAA = abd aortic aneurysm

Had Indian buffet with my friend Alex over the weekend.  Out of the hundreds of people I've met in Toronto, he is one of a handful that are truly motivated about life.  I get the impression that the vast majority of people are what I call drifting opportunists.  These are people that are intelligent, generally want to succeed, and already finished or are in the middle of some kind of undergrad degree.

However, for some odd reason, they give off an air of dissatisfaction and despair.  They aren't excited about life anymore, and in a sense are waiting for someone to rescue them or for sheer luck to fall out of a tree and smack them in the head.  You know the type.

I'm a believer that life is simple - you figure out what you want, and you get it (or genuinely try, fail, and move on).  You figure out what you don't want, and you get rid of it.  Yet, so many people are stuck with a job they hate, and shattered dreams.  Or more commonly, they're stuck with a job that is "just OK" and no dreams at all.

What's the point of this rant?  Well, the point is that it's nasty to be one of these people.  If you're one of them you should slap yourself upside the head until you wake up.  Goodness knows, nobody will fix your life for you unless you're on top of things.  Take this from an intern just finishing a rotation in a Mental Health hospital - if you keep on like this you will go crazy, bitter, or both.  Seriously, people kill themselves over being a drifting opportunist for too long.

Rant over.